The biggest myths about emotions, debunked | Lisa Feldman Barrett

No, emotions don’t happen TO you. Here’s what happens instead. ❍ Subscribe to The Well on YouTube: ❍ Up next: What trauma does to your brain and body With the growth of self-help books and the fight to destigmatize therapy, people today are perhaps more unafraid than ever to talk about their emotions. But this has led to some common myths about emotions, and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett wants to debunk them. Barrett argues that emotions are not hardwired into the brain from birth, but rather stem from events that the brain creates based on past experiences and predictions of what’s going to happen. Contrary to popular understanding, emotions are not just reactive events that happen to us — we play an active role in creating them. By learning new things, watching movies, or even acting in a play to get outside of the normal range of what the brain predicts, Barrett argues that it’s possible to change those predictive patterns, and by doing so, to become the architects of our future selves. Understanding how our brain creates emotions can help us manage them — freeing us from repeated patterns of behavior and empowering us to control our emotions and heal ourselves. Read the full video transcript: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ❍ About The Well ❍ Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. So what do they think? How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions? Let’s dive into The Well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Well on your favorite platforms: ❍ Facebook: ❍ Instagram: